by Tom Barrett | Jun 10, 2016 | Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, National News, News and Events
………Like Medicare or Other Employer-Sponsored Coverage. Yesterday the Obama Administration and HHS announced they were significantly curtailing the availability and use of short-term health insurance. Their reasons? Not exactly sure. Maybe it’s due to the myriad of...
by Tom Barrett | May 11, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, Uncategorized
The CMS Data Match program determines whether an employer-sponsored group health plan has the responsibility for paying health care claims before Medicare. As discussed in last week’s post, with the number of workers age 65 and over steadily increasing, many...
by Tom Barrett | May 6, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, Providers
Many employers are receiving letters from CMS (Medicare) requesting information and it’s causing some confusion. The actual title of the letter reads “Requirement to Submit the Group Health Plan Report for the IRS/SSA/CMS Data Project”. Here’s an overview that may...
by Tom Barrett | Apr 8, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Managed Care - Group Health, Medicare Medicaid, National News, News and Events, Pharmacy Costs, Pharmacy, PBMs and Pharma Costs, Providers, Uncategorized
This post follows up on last week’s primer on how abuse of prescription pain medications has led to what’s now recognized as a true national crisis. The new podcast Embedded provides a riveting inside look at how the use of one particularly powerful prescription...
by Tom Barrett | Jun 8, 2015 | Employer Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, National News, Uncategorized
We’re keeping an eye on it; and, apparently so are many of the states. The healthcare reform law includes a waiver that, starting in 2017, would let states take federal dollars now invested in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and redirect them and...
by Tom Barrett | Dec 10, 2014 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Medicare Medicaid, Pharmacy Costs
…Here are the ABC’s (and Part D) For whatever reason – aging workforce, increasing costs, heightened awareness because of ACA – we’re getting lots and lots of questions from clients and their employees about Medicare this year. Way more than in years past. The...
